Roses
by I'dRatherBeInStarsHollow
Summary: The Gilmore girls discuss names with their other halves. Literati. Java Junkie. One shot. Set after the end of the show.


**The Gilmore girls discuss names with their other halves. Literati. Java Junkie. One shot. Set after the end of the show.**

**The quotation included is Shakespeare's i.e. not mine.**

**The characters aren't mine; they belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino.**

Roses

Rory looked down at her left hand, stretching it out in front of her. She watched as the different lights in the room – from the TV and the lamps – reflected and refracted off the small gem and silver band on her ring finger. _Her_ ring finger. _Rory Gilmore's_ ring finger.

He'd proposed the week before and it had yet to sink in. She wondered if it ever would. After everything they'd been through, Jess Mariano was finally ready to say that he wanted Rory and he wanted forever. He wasn't going anywhere, not this time. Rory hadn't needed a ring to tell her that but it certainly was nice all the same. Sometime soon she would become Mrs Mariano. Wouldn't she?

Rory broke out of her reverie.

"Jess?" she called.

"Yeah?" Jess' voice carried through the small apartment.

"Could you come here please?"

The smell of Jess' cologne preceded him as he made his way from the bathroom to the living room, buttoning his shirt as he went.

"You okay?"

"What am I going to do about my name?"

Jess replied with an eyebrow raised in confusion. Rory sat up straighter and turned to him.

"My name, Jess! When we get married. Am I going to be Rory Mariano? Rory Gilmore-Mariano? Rory Mariano-Gilmore? Plain old Rory Gilmore?"

Jess remained quiet, finishing his buttoning as he moved to sit next to Rory. This topic hadn't really crossed his mind. He guessed that was one of the privileges of being a man; no-one expected them to change a part of their identity when they got married.

"Well," he began.

Rory looked at him expectantly, impatient.

"In the nicest possible way, I don't really care what your name is."

Rory sighed. This is what she'd hoped and expected he'd say. Or something along those lines. And she liked that he didn't mind - she just wasn't sure that she didn't mind.

"You can take my name, or keep your own, or combine the two. You're Rory." He shrugged his shoulders. "And I love you."

Luke opened the door of the diner, Lorelai close behind him. She was quiet, or quieter, but had still insisted on her post-Friday Night Dinner coffee from Luke's. Following Rory's phone call the previous week tonight had been a celebration of all things Rory and Jess, or as close to a celebration of Rory and Jess as the elder Gilmores could get.

Lorelai sat at the counter and looked at her mug as Luke placed it into her hands. Luke lent on the counter, closing the distance between them.

"So, you want to share with the group?"

"I was just… Rory and Jess, y'know… I was… It made me…"

"Lorelai."

Lorelai looked away from her coffee and into his eyes.

"Should I have taken your name?"

Luke made a guttural, choking noise of surprise.

"When we got married Luke. Should I have taken your name? I didn't even think at the time – I mean, I know we did it all pretty quickly in the end but still… I could be Lorelai Danes! Did you want me to be Lorelai Danes? Boy that sounds weird…"

Luke remained quiet, thinking, and allowing for Lorelai's waffle. He'd known her for more than long enough and knew her plenty well enough to know what to do when she got like this.

"Because it's not as if I even really like the name Gilmore, or what it stands for at least," she continued. "I don't really like my parents so really it shouldn't matter. I don't like my parents and I do like you so, so really it's obvious."

Here she paused.

"It's just… It's just that I'm so used to it now. Through everything, I've always been a Gilmore. It's the name I gave Rory. I've been a Gilmore for so long and for so many important points in my life… I can't really see myself without that name."

Lorelai looked deep into Luke's eyes, searching for an answer.

"I can't really see you without that name either."

"So you don't mind that I'm not Lorelai Danes?"

Luke smiled, leaned in and kissed her. It made sense for them to be Luke and Lorelai, as they'd always been. He didn't want her to change for him, or for anyone except herself.

"No Lorelai. I don't mind."

When Rory woke up on Saturday morning, Jess had already left. This wasn't unusual. Jess liked to get his work in early on the weekends to be back in time for an afternoon of reading for pleasure with Rory. She didn't rush in getting up. She took her time going to the bathroom, washing her face. When she finally made her way into the living room, she blinked. There, on the coffee table, was a vase (she hadn't even known Jess knew they owned a vase let alone where it was) in which was a single, red rose. Next to this was small sheet of note paper, covered with a familiar scrawl.

_'__A rose by any other name would smell as sweet"_

_And I'm pretty tempted to change mine too – you change yours and I'll change mine._

_How do the initials JMG look? Or JGM?_

Rory grinned. The quotation was the sort of thing that Jess would never let himself say aloud, but she knew he couldn't pass up the literary reference. As for the rest… Well, it was also exactly what she had needed to make her decision. Now she couldn't wait for Jess to get home. It had barely taken a second for her to begin imagining how the initials RGM, or RMG, might look at the bottom of her articles.


End file.
